This watchdog blog, by journalist Norman Oder, offers analysis, commentary, and reportage about the $4.9B project to build the Barclays Center arena and 15-16 towers at a crucial site in Brooklyn. Dubbed Atlantic Yards by developer Forest City Ratner in 2003, it was rebranded Pacific Park Brooklyn in 2014 after the Chinese government-owned Greenland Group bought a 70% stake going forward. As of 2018, after the arena and four towers were built, Greenland will own 95% of future construction.

A Times op-ed critical of AY, 38 months later

Some 38 months after the Atlantic Yards project was announced, the first-ever national edition op-ed on the topic appears today in the New York Times. (One was published in the City section in November 2005.) Headlined A Developing Story, it makes some valuable points, especially in a venue unwelcoming to the topic, though--and who knows what the imposed boundaries were--it also falls short in some ways.

The author, novelist and journalist Jennifer Egan, is a regular contributor to the Times Magazine and an advisory board member of Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn (DDDB). It's understandable that the Times would solicit a piece from a writer it knows rather than others even closer to Atlantic Yards debate, but the latter strategy might have produced an even tougher piece--or maybe one that the Times would've rejected.

The headline and lead

Start with the headline, which is not the writer's doing. It's bland, indirect. Not The Project That Ate Brooklyn, the headline on the flawed previous op-ed. Nothing about a battle or conflict or outrage. The pull quote is "What Brooklyn can learn from the Atlantic Yards affair."

It begins:The developer Bruce Ratner broke ground this week on his Atlantic Yards project in Brooklyn, despite an eminent domain suit over property he must raze to build a basketball arena for the Nets. This “preparatory work” is Mr. Ratner’s latest maneuver in a maddeningly effective campaign to make his instant city — a 22-acre swarm of 16 residential skyscrapers (and a 20,500-seat arena) that would create the densest population swath in the United States — look and feel like a foregone conclusion.

That's an important point--"densest population swath"--and one that public officials should be challenged to defend. They haven't. The state has dodged the issue, pointing to high-density at transit hubs but not acknowledging that most is commercial space, not residential space.

In a coincidence that can only be described as "brutally weird," the Times today contains a story irresponsibly headlined Judge Urges Dismissal of Atlantic Yards Suit, thus suggesting that the eminent domain suit Egan highlighted is likely dead--but failing to point out that the case would be re-filed in state court.

In her essay, Egan takes some muted swipes at news coverage, but doesn't--or, perhaps more likely, isn't given the opportunity to--name names. The Times deserves some blame, especially today.

The view from Fort Greene

Egan, as with fellow Fort Greene resident Chris Smith in New York magazine last August, is skeptical of the state's environmental review, citing the already present "strain of poor planning for a rising population," such as the effect on traffic and schools.

She writes of the project size:Nearly everyone I’ve spoken to about the Atlantic Yards project, whether they favored or opposed it, assumed that it would be scaled back. In fact, the plan approved by the Public Authorities Control Board in December was more than 600,000 square feet larger than the one first unveiled.

Actually, it was just about the same square footage as first unveiled. A more potent criticism would've been that the developer increased the size of the project and then scaled it back twice to square one, offering an illusion of scaleback, enabled significantly by a front page story in last September's Times. (I answered some fact-checking inquiries from Egan but not this one.)

No concessions

Despite "sobering revisions by the city and the developer of his initial heady claims about the project’s benefits to Brooklyn," Atlantic Yards "sailed forward with hardly a concession from Mr. Ratner (whose company is also building this newspaper’s new headquarters)," Egan writes.

Why was this different from the Norman Foster tower on Manhattan’s Upper East Side and the Jets stadium on the Far West Side, she asks.

State review

Her answer:The most critical fact is that, because part of the property on the Atlantic Yards footprint belongs to the Metropolitan Transit Authority, a state organization, Mr. Ratner was allowed to bypass local checks and balances and work directly with Albany.

True, but someone let this happen. That's Mayor Bloomberg. As I wrote, the state and the city sometimes manage dual jurisdiction.

Egan also notes the absence of a wealthy corporate adversary like Cablevision, which fought the West Side Stadium, and the absence of protected buildings to involve the Landmarks Preservation Commission. (True, but preservationists suggest that a different kind of loss--of a sense of scale and place--should be recognized.)

Why the apathy?

Egan wonders why so many Brooklynites oppose the development but are apathetic. She writes:What chance do we have, I was asked, when our mayor, governor and borough president are in lockstep with a private developer? News coverage has often left unscrutinized Mr. Ratner’s claims about the development’s financial benefits or the implications of its density and scale. This tacit approval has only added to the perception that the project is a done deal.

Let's add to that. Atlantic Yards has never been shown in neighborhood scale in the Times.

Community benefits?

She offers a bit too much credit to the Community Benefits Agreement:The commitments Mr. Ratner made to these groups — should he honor them — are good ones: construction job training, small-business development and 2,250 units of subsidized housing.

Even this opponent doesn't point out all the tradeoffs and contradictions regarding the subsidized housing; the large percentage that's not affordable to average Brooklynites; the still-unrevealed amount of public subsidies; and the use of "affordable housing" to gain political support for a project that's out of scale. Indeed, the project, in the developer's p.r., has morphed from hoops to housing.

She notes one contradiction--much of the affordable housing "won’t be completed until 2016"--but could've been tougher. More than two months ago, a major project supporter acknowledged that the project, and thus the affordable housing, could take 20 years, and just this week project landscape architect Laurie Olin made the same point, forcing the developer to publicly contradict him.

What Brooklyn can learn

Egan's closing paragraphs point to the contradiction of Ratner allying himself with handpicked groups "run largely by African-Americans," casting himself as the savior of "working-class Brooklynites who favor jobs and housing in a battle against affluent, spoil-sport newcomers who have the luxury of fretting over their quality of life."

The loss was any real evaluation of the project. "Are we content to let our borough’s future be imposed on us by developers and politicians?" she asks. She points hopefully, if wishfully, to the "progress" evinced in the alternative UNITY plan for the MTA's Vanderbilt Yard, leaving a blueprint "should Mr. Ratner yet fail."

But it may be hard to be "united in advance on questions of jobs, housing and scale," given the city's willingness to invest in development over community planning. Thus, Egan's "healthy warning to elected officials who might consider placing these developers’ interests above our own" may have to come in court, as in the Atlantic Yards eminent domain suit, should the "serious and difficult questions" be heard. And the Times today, one section away, ignores Magistrate Judge Robert M. Levy's respectful nod to the merits of the case.

The questions raised in court about the state's designation of blight, the outline of the Atlantic Yards footprint, and the willingness of public officials to give Ratner a deal remain worthy of evaluation.

Previous essay

Egan's piece comes 15 months after the first-ever op-ed, from former borough historian John Manbeck, whose 11/13/05 City section op-ed piece was headlined The Project That Ate Brooklyn. I called it "critical but hardly coherent." (The Sunday City section circulates only in the five boroughs, so many interested in or impacted by the project didn't get to read it.)

As I wrote:Manbeck's critical take on the project, calling the subsidies a "misuse of public funds," likely won't be welcomed by the developer, but at the same time he misreads critics, calling them NIMBYs, and, while criticizing the approval process, basically throws up his hands.

While Egan's op-ed is not as resigned, the Times today, given the news coverage, may lead readers to similar resignation.

While that's part of the lawsuit, more prominent are claims of racial discrimination and retaliation, with black employees claiming repeated abuse by white supervisors, preferential treatment toward Hispanic colleagues, and retaliation in response to complaints.

Two individual supervisors, for example, are charged with referring to black employees as “black motherfucker,” “dumb black bitch,” “black monkey,” “piece of shit” and “nigger.”

Two have referred to an employee blind in one eye as “cyclops,” and “the one-eyed guy,” and an employee with a nose disorder as “the nose guy.”

There's been no official response yet though arena spokesman Barry Baum told the Daily News they, but take “allegations of this kind very seriously” and have "a zero tolerance policy for…

To supporters of Forest City Ratner's Atlantic Yards project, it's a long-awaited plan for long-overlooked land. "The Atlantic Yards area has been available for any developer in America for over 100 years,” declared Borough President Marty Markowitz at a 5/26/05 City Council hearing.

Charles Gargano, chairman of the Empire State Development Corporation, mused on 11/15/05 to WNYC's Brian Lehrer, “Isn’t it interesting that these railyards have sat for decades and decades and decades, and no one has done a thing about them.” Forest City Ratner spokesman Joe DePlasco, in a 12/19/04 New York Times article ("In a War of Words, One Has the Power to Wound") described the railyards as "an empty scar dividing the community."

But why exactly has the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s Vanderbilt Yard never been developed? Do public officials have some responsibility?

The bi-monthly Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park Community Update meeting June 14, held at 55 Hanson Place, addressed multiple issues, including delays in the project, a new detente with project neighbors,concerns about traffic congestion, upcoming sewer work and demolitions, and an explanation of how high winds caused debris to fly off the under-construction 38 Sixth Avenue building. I'll have more coverage.
Security issues came up several times at the meeting.
Wayne Bailey, a resident who regularly takes photos and videos (that I often use) of construction/operations issues that impact residents, asked representatives of Tishman Construction if the security guard at the sites they're building works for them.
After Tishman Senior VP Eric Reid said yes, Bailey asked why a guard told him not to shoot video of the site, even though he was on a public street.

"I will address it with principals for that security firm," Reid said.
Forest City Ratner executive Ashley Cotton, the …

This graphic, posted in February 2018, is post-dated to stay at the top of the blog. It will be updated as announced configurations change and buildings launch. Note the unbuilt B1 and the proposed--but not yet approved--shift in bulk to the unbuilt Site 5.

The August 2014 tentative configurations proposed by developer Greenland Forest City Partners will change. The project is already well behind that tentative timetable.

How many people are expected?

Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park has a projected 6,430 apartments housing 2.1 persons per unit (as per Chapter 4 of the 2006 Final Environmental Impact Statement), which would mean 13,503 new residents, with 1,890 among them in low-income affordable rentals, and 2,835 in moderate- and middle-income affordable rentals.

That leaves 8,778 people in market-rate rentals and condos, though let's call it 8,358 after subtracting 420 who may live in 200 promised below-market condos. So that's 5,145 in below-market units, though many of them won…

There are obituary notices in the Bowling Green Daily News and the Wichita Eagle, which state:
He was born in Wichita, KS where he attended public Schools and Wichita State University. He lived for many years in Brooklyn, NY, and was employed as a legal assistant. David's hobby was cartography and had an avid interest in Mass Transit Systems of the world. David was predeceased by his father, Kenneth E. Sheets. He is survived by his mother, Wilma Smith, step-brother, Billy Ray Smith and his wife, Jane all of Bowling Green; step-sister, Ellen Smith Alexander and her husband, Jerry of Bella Vista, AR; several cousins and step-nieces and step-nephews also survive. Memorial Services will be on Monday, January 22, 2018 at 1:00 pm with visitation from 10:00 am to 1:00 pm Monday at Johnson-Vaughn-Phe…

Notably, a lease valued at $40 million "upfront to lease up to 43 acres over 49 years... seems like a good deal on rent for the state-controlled property." Also, the Long Island Rail Road will expand service to Belmont.

That indicates public support for an arena widely described as "privately financed," but how much? We don't know yet, but some more details--or at least questions--have emerged.

An Aqueduct comparable?

Well, we don't know what the other bid was, and there aren't exactly parcels that large offering direct comparables.

But consider: Genting New York LLC in September 2010 was granted a franchise to operate a video lottery terminal under a 30 year lease on 67 acres at Aqueduct Park (as noted by Gov. Andrew Cuomo).

At right is a photo of a poster spotted in Hasidic Williamsburg right. Clearly there's an event scheduled at the Barclays Center aimed at the Haredi Jewish community (strict Orthodox Jews who reject secular culture), but the lack of English text makes it cryptic.

The website Matzav.com explains, Protest Against Israeli Draft of Bnei Yeshiva Rescheduled for Barclays Center:
A large asifa to protest the drafting of bnei yeshiva in Eretz Yisroel into the Israeli army that had been set to take place this month will instead be held on Sunday, 17 Sivan/June 11, at the Barclays Center in Downtown Brooklyn, NY.
So attendees at a big gathering will protest an apparent change of policy that will make it much more difficult for traditional Orthodox Jewish students--both Hasidic (who follow a rebbe) and non-Hasidic (who don't)--to get deferments from the draft. Comments on the Yeshiva World website explain some of the debate.